VPN: Very Problematic Network?

Six Reasons to Consider the Cloud

Before the advent of cloud-based services for exchanging medical data, facilities developed file sharing through virtual private networks (VPNs). But VPNs are essentially "workaround" solutions that can create more problems than they solve. Amy Radonich, Assistant Director, Imaging Services at University of California San Diego Medical Center, explains here why she believes cloud-based data-sharing is far superior to VPNs.

At UCSD Medical Center, we are among a growing number of institutions that swap radiology files back and forth in the cloud. This approach has many advantages over the ways that files have traditionally been shared. My favorite benefit, though, may be the opportunity to wean my facility off of VPNs.

VPN stands for "virtual private network." But in my view, a better description would be "very problematic network." If you've used VPNs, you could probably find less polite ways to depict them that would be just as apt.

VPNs were probably first developed for large companies that had offices in far-flung places or employees working from home. A VPN is essentially a private, password-protected pipe that two entities set up between them so they can share data privately and "securely" (I'll explain those quote marks below) over the Internet... [Read More]

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eMix a Solution for Challenges Cited by AAMI Survey Respondents

A recent Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) survey asked clinical engineers and biomedical engineering technicians to name the top challenges at their hospitals. As a measure of its multiple impacts on the way medical facilities currently operate, eMix - and in general, cloud-based sharing of medical information - addressed three of the challenges ranked in the top ten.

The top-ranked issue was interfacing between devices and information systems. This is hardly surprising, considering the vast array of IT devices and systems needed to run a state-of-the-art medical facility. With so many manufacturers selling proprietary technology, it takes a monumental effort just to get one hospital's IT components talking to each other. Then there's the added challenge of moving data between hospitals.

You can read the whole story on our blog.

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